The present invention relates to a storage system, formatting method and computer program product.
A storage system having a high capacity storage area is configured, for example, from a disk array device or the like. A disk array device is configured by arranging a plurality of storage devices in an array and, for instance, provides a memory area based on RAID (Redundant Arrays of Independent Inexpensive Disks). At least one or more logical volumes are formed on a physical storage area provided by the storage device group, and these logical volumes are provided to a host system. A host system is able to perform write access and read access to the logical volumes. In order to read and write data from and to the storage device in response to an access request from the host system, it is necessary to format the storage device in advance. For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-29934 refers to the physical formatting of a storage device.
In an open system, generally speaking, an FBA (Fixed Block Architecture) system for designating a logical block address is used as the recording system of a disk drive. With this FBA system, the storage device is formatted into a fixed length record. Meanwhile, with a mainframe system, generally speaking, a CKD (Count Key Data) system for designating the cylinder number, head number and record number is used as the recording system of a disk drive. With this CKD system, the storage device is formatted into a variable length record.
Further, with an open system, although it is possible to access the volume formatted in an FBA format, it is not possible to access the volume formatted in a CKD format. Meanwhile, with a mainframe system, although it is possible to access the volume formatted in a CKD format, it is not possible to access the volume formatted in an FBA format.